For the walls, I would just use a gloss latex house paint. Gloss will be easier to clean and also make the room seem a bit larger. Brush on the first coat to make sure don't miss any surface imperfections, and you could roll on the second coat with a fairly thick (1/2") roller. For a small laundry room, I'd probably go with a single sheet of vinyl flooring, but the Allure looks like it'd do the job. This post was edited by randy427 on Wed, Oct 29, 14 at 23:15

It looks great! We did something similar last year and we are still thrilled with it. It looks like we have the same narrow stairs that you have. It makes a huge difference! We also changed out the top door for a glass paneled door after my contractor suggested it. I would never have thought of it. It helps when you are coming up from the basement so that you don't open the door into anyone.

@ RL Relocation LLC - No problem. You are right, the orb pendant that I bought initially was entirely too big! It was 23" and made my stairs look VERY narrow. I thought it would look good... but was wrong. The stairs are not wide by any means, but they are not as narrow as they appeared with that photo. I still think when I stand at the top of the stairs and look down, it appears wider in person than it does in photos. I'm not able to get a good angle to make it look wider. Anyway, I've returned that orb and purchased a 12" lantern (saving about $300 also, I might add!) and just from holding it up, I think it will look great. The renderings I've posted are of other lanterns for sale on HOUZZ, and are not exactly to scale... but just to get a feel for what it will look like, I used that feature that allows you to "show in your room". This project has come to a pause with the holidays, but hopefully we can get the drywall, paint, and lighting finished up within a couple of weeks.

Patricia is on top of things as usual. Adding to a stair case means you are taking it OUT of the 'grandfather' terms and creating a new stair case. That means it needs to be brought up to today's code. This is where it gets expensive. If the cost for oak treads (just the materials) is too much for your budget, then the cost of the new stair case is going to blow your mind. Oak as a material is not that expensive. The difference between (as an example) of $7/sf red oak planks and $5/sf pine or fir is nothing...it is the rebuild that is expensive. What you *might be able to do is add a two step landing...but even that is questionable given it is still part of the stairs. Do you have photos? Did the 'digging out' of the basement include the cost of the stairs? How long ago was this done? Who did the work?